There’s Science. What I am going to share, in today’s blog post, is the science behind why it works. I am going to challenge you to create an experiment where you test my claims, and see if they are true for you. Yes, I want you to become a scientist, and instead of judging without all of the evidence, I want you to go discover whether my claim is true for you. Isn’t that the best way to find out if something is true?

Some people rely on others for information to make a decision. They rely on the media, friends, family and advertisers. It’s a short cut that works out really well if your sources are the right ones. It doesn’t work out so well if your sources mislead, misinform or just blatantly lie to you and to others.

Discover the truth. I say, “Find out for yourself.” If you do the work, then you can trust the results. I am assuming that you would care enough about the quality of your own life to put in the effort it takes to find the truth? Right?!!

If you have been a reader of this blog for a while, you know that I test things out on myself before I write about them. Sometimes, my tests don’t turn out well. But, it is in the testing that we find the truth that works for us. In this case, after four years of using them, I can tell you that vision boards work for me, and they can work for you, too. So, please keep an open mind.

Make. It. Real. How do you make something that you want to have happen in your life a reality? You may make a goal, create the list of action steps, modify your plan when obstacles arise, and keep working it till success. That is what I do to make my goals a reality. But how come some of us can’t make our goals happen? How come some of us get off track, and either quit or put off a goal that is really important to us? Maybe the answer isn’t found in time constraints, or other people, or not having enough money, or whatever other obstacle is put in our path. Maybe in order to make it real, we have to get really, really clear on what the IT is.

That is where vision boards come in.

Test One:

Imagine an experience you had recently that was important to you. Yes, you can do this. Imagine it. In all its beautiful detail. The colors, the objects, the people, the sounds, everything that happened. If you are an auditory learner, you may hear a narrative playing in your mind, or if you are a visual learner, you may see it unfold like a movie, or if you are a kinesthetic learner, you may feel it in your body more than you see it or hear it. However, it doesn’t matter which type of modality you prefer, your imagination will replay the experience.

Play with the images in your mind as you imagine the experience again. Make them far away from you, or bring them closer to you. Make them gigantic, or make them super small. Keep everything else the same. What happens to the experience when you only change the images? Does your memory change?

Become a sound engineer, and play with the words, the tones, the speed and the loudness of the dialogue of this experience when you imagine it again. What happens when the talking gets really loud, and what happens when it gets really soft? When you play with the sound like that, what happens to your experience? Does your memory change?

Move differently when you revisit this experience for the last time. Change how you stand or move to sit, or have the conversation lying down. Modify any position in your body while keeping the other elements of the memory the same. What happens to the experience when you do that?

In this test, you learned that by playing with the elements of a memory, you can change your experience of that memory. You control your experience. Now how can you use this ability to help you make a future you want to have real?

Well, the images, quotes and even sounds (if digital) you use for your vision board can be arranged in a way that takes advantage of our inherent bias toward proximity and size. The closer and bigger the image, or even the louder the sound, for example, the more intense our reaction is to that stimulus. The more intense the reaction, the more we pay attention to it.

Test Two:

Pay Attention to all the green objects in your room, right now. Do it. All the green objects, and when the 30 seconds are up go to the next step.

Count how many blue objects you saw.

What? You didn’t see any blue objects, because I said pay attention to the green ones? No, it wasn’t a trick. It was to illustrate a point.

Bias, we have a lot of biases. In this case, we have a system in our brain called the reticular activating system that gets us to pay attention to the things that are important to us. In this example, I told you what was important, and you looked for it, and when you looked for it, you found what you were told to look for.

In this simple test, you learned that a directive such as “look for all the green objects” creates focus AND blindness.

Well, a vision board is similar to that directive. The vision board is telling you to pay attention to what is important to you, to the people who are important to you, and to the experiences that are important to you. The vision board primes you to look for the opportunities that match what is on your board. If you use it, correctly, over time, you can bring everything on that board into your life.

Test Three: Because, well, we like things to come in threes.

Look for any experiences you have had in your past that you still can remember today. Is there a smell that you love? Or an image that makes you feel possibility? What about a book that inspired you?Or maybe a song that always makes you smile? Find that one thing.

Intensity in music, in images, and in words are what make us remember that something is important to us. What is it about that one thing that spoke to you?

Feel what that experience is doing for you right now. Connect with it. How could you make that feeling even stronger? Make it stronger now.

Anchor it by linking the experience to the words, to the images and to the feeling that it evokes. Get as many examples of it as you can.

Now. Make.It. Real. Once you are in that peak state. Get that image, word, feeling into a tangible place through a picture, a set of pictures, or through words, or a set of words and you can do it digitally or through a collage. Make the pictures big if they are really important to you. Make the images small if they are meant to be texture or the background. Place the more important pictures where you can see them first. Put the words next to the right pictures for extra intensity and power. Use the colors that speak to you that gives you that feeling. You want it to make you feel the possibility of that, well, vision.

Yes, I sort of tricked you. The last test had you create a vision board. But guess what? You did this for a memory that really moved you. What if you did this for a future that you want to be real? The steps are the same!

So there you have it. If you did all the tests, you now have a working vision board that moves you. The next step is to test it for power and pull. If it doesn’t move you, modify it till it does. Now test it. Now apply it and repeat the process.

Let me know how it goes, because the proof isn’t in what someone tells you. The proof is in the results that you attain for yourself. Thanks for hearing me out! For more information about me and what I do, visit my website at http://www.challengeyourvision.com.